I dreamed I was standing on the mountainside, overlooking the shining towers of the city below.

Veric was sitting on a rock, hugging her knees to her chest. Her face was haggard. Luka sat next to her, covered in blood and missing an arm. His remaining hand was withered and blackened like dead wood, curled stiffly around the hilt of his sword. Roxana was pallid and unconscious.

And Acacius’ body — my body — was carefully laid out in the grass, covered loosely by Veric’s outer robe. The chest wasn’t moving, and the skin had blotted bruise-purple near the ground, where the stagnant blood must have pooled.

I was dead.

The wind blew and lifted the corner of the robe, revealing my body’s face. A pair of bloody sockets gazed out at the sky.

The eyes had been carved out.

“Do you think things would have turned out differently if we had just gotten there sooner?” Veric said quietly.

Luka shook his head. “There’s no use in thinking about it.”

“But still.” She buried her head in her knees. “I wish Acacius had trusted us just a bit more. Then maybe…”

Then what? What happened?

But neither of them continued.

“Where should we go?” Veric muttered eventually. “If we’re discovered, we won’t escape a second time.”

“We could hide in the ocean until the Fantasm World ends,” Luka suggested after some thought. “It will be away from other people, and from the Cagzol Caverns. Being in water will give you a field advantage if any remaining members of the Order track us down.”

Veric nodded. “Let’s move quickly before the visual disaster can strike.”

Luka silently got up. Veric picked up Roxana in her arms, glancing hesitantly between Luka and my body.

Luka didn’t say anything about the state of his arms. He said, “We brought his body out, and we have his last will with us. If we have the opportunity, we’ll make a grave for him.”

Veric let out a long breath and lowered her eyes.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

She gave one last long look at my body before turning away with a guilty look on her face.

The two of them walked down the mountainside. As they circled the outskirts of the city, a great tremor shook the earth. Veric and Luka crouched low in the grass and waited nearly half a minute before the earthquake passed.

“A tsunami will come soon,” Veric murmured.

“Let’s hurry.”

They began to run.

When they reached the beach, the wave patterns were already becoming disordered, receding down the shore. They waded into the water and dove as fast as they could, following the slope of the ocean floor down to its coral reefs. Veric led Luka down until the sunlight became dim, then found a large coral formation to take shelter by. She laid Roxana down and beckoned Luka to sit on the sandy floor with her.

“The water receded a lot,” she remarked. She rubbed her eyes. “This tsunami will be large.”

Eerie hisses and crackles echoed through the water, accompanied by a faint roar that grew in a crescendo. Soon, a large shadow rippled over the ocean floor, heading towards the shore.

“That’s the wave passing overhead.” Veric rubbed her eyes again. “There will be rubble and debris washing this way soon. Once that passes, se just need to hold out down here for the next three days.”

Luka grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Luka?”

“Veric. Look at me.”

She lowered her hand. “What’s wrong?”

Nothing seemed particularly out of place, but as Luka gazed into her eyes, his grip tightened until the knuckles went white. His breathing quickened, and he looked out into the ocean depths.

“Luka? What’s wrong?”

“Close your eyes. Don’t look at anything. Just stay still.”

Veric swallowed. “…Okay.”

Luka let go of her shoulder, clenching his jaw.

Gaze hardening, he looked back out into the darkness and spoke.

— Come forth.

The light on the water rippled. Their iridescent spots flashed in the water, casting oil-slick stains that distorted the view of the depths.

…

No, I was wrong. It wasn’t just the light.

And it was everywhere.

[There it is,] a thought came sighing in my head. [The end of everything.]

And I finally saw it—

The greatest danger we would face within the next day.

The dream of [Bound Prophet of the Single Path] shattered.

---

When I woke up, I was underwater. My heart pounded in my ears.

Fuck. My last thoughts before falling asleep had been too vague. I hadn’t gotten enough information from that vision at all.

Not that I’d had enough information before that vision either, so I guess it wasn’t anything new.

Since the vision had terminated sometime tomorrow afternoon, I wouldn’t be able to use [Bound Prophet] again until then. No use crying over spilt milk. I took a deep breath and took stock of my situation.

I could feel cold rock and long, trailing plants under my fingers. The water current flowed by like it was a cool breeze. My joints hurt and my skin ached all over, and the pain in my shoulder blades was growing worse.

Someone was sitting nearby, gazing at the light dancing on the surface of the river. Without another pair of eyes looking at them, I didn’t know who it was. However, there didn’t seem to be any immediate danger.

Once my heart rate slowed down, I fumbled around and sat up stiffly. “How long have I been sleeping?”

“It’s been a hour and a half.” That was Veric’s voice. Her line of vision shifted to land on me. “We had to move a few times because of our pursuers. For some reason, I couldn’t get you to wake up, so we handled it on our own.”

How the hell did I sleep through all that? If it wasn’t a side effect of [Bound Prophet], then I must’ve been in worse shape than I thought.

I examined my appearance through her eyes. My clothes were still ripped up from the last fight, but much of the blood had been washed away. Someone had taken Jules’ sunglasses off; Acacius’ sharp eyes were on full display. Also, someone had given me their coat, one of the butterfly wing-patterned robes of this world.

“Where are the others?”

“Roxana and Hanan are sleeping there,” Veric gestured somewhere I couldn’t see through her peripheral vision, “and Luka is out scouting. Hanan’s soul really did come back, by the way, but we decided to keep her asleep until everyone was awake.”

“I see.” I plucked at my newly acquired outerwear. “And what’s with this?”

“Um… You aren’t in a good state right now, so… I thought it would be better to give you something to keep warm. Even if the Great Dragon’s blessings can help you in water, it’s still cold down here.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “You gave me your coat?”

“Um… It was Luka, actually.”

That made even less sense. “Why the hell would Luka do it?”

Veric cleared her throat. “Well, if he didn’t, I was going to…”

Okay, so he just didn’t want Veric giving up her own comfort for some bastard like Acacius. That was much more reasonable.

But why did Veric insist on caring?

“Thanks for looking out for me,” I said. “I owe you one.”

If I was in her shoes, I wouldn’t have bothered with a guy like me at all.

“Um. Don’t worry about it. I’m just…” Veric hesitated, then changed tracks. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you.”

“Me? Why?”

“You’re… different from what I thought.”

Uh oh. I propped up one knee and leaned back against the rocky slope of the riverbed, deliberately relaxed. “How so?”

“I always thought that you were cold, ruthless, and willing to sacrifice others in pursuit of your goals. You’ve hurt many people… and probably killed a lot, too.”

Wow. When she said it all together like that, wasn’t it actually a miracle that she gave me a chance? No, why did she even resign herself to being my project partner?

“But now that we’ve worked together for some time,” she continued, “I feel like that isn’t the whole story.”

This was starting to feel dangerous. “Veric—”

“You said I was the key to the greatest number of people surviving. That’s why you came to save me.”

“It was also self-interest. Those blessings are important for me, too.”

“But in this unknown situation, instead of running away or retreating, your goal from the beginning has been to confront and resolve the danger completely. Even to the point that you were willing to put your body and life on the line. I… don’t have that kind of courage. I don’t know why you do.”

“Stop,” I said sharply. “Those things you thought about me before — being ruthless, killing others — it’s all true. Don’t go painting me in a rosy light just because our goals happen to align.”

“And that’s the other thing,” Veric said. “For such a schemer, you draw such a strange line between yourself and others. Why do you not want us trust you? Why do you insist on the most pessimistic, utilitarian interpretation of your actions? It’s not advantageous to you at all. I don’t think these are the actions of someone who is cruel to others. Just someone who won’t let them close.”

I was momentarily speechless. Was there actually something wrong with her? How the hell did she get this far in life by thinking about useless stuff like this?

“Veric, do you think I’m such a noble person? The only reason I’m making an effort to do more than run away is because I think it’s possible. If things were just a little different, I would have abandoned everyone to survive on my own.”

“But why do you think it’s possible?”

I gestured around at us. “You’re all willing to work with me.”

“Then why didn’t you, I don’t know, work harder to keep me closer? Weren’t you afraid I’d stay in Jules’ camp instead of coming with you? Instead, you just said… Your goal was achieved as long as I was alive.”

I laughed, low and mocking. “And you believed me?”

“Yes.”

At her immediate and firm answer, the words I wanted to say got stuck in my throat.

“I guess you must think I’m foolish,” Veric said quietly. “But before I believe what you say, I believe in my own eyes.”

…

She really… reminded me a lot of my sister.

No, she was more like my teacher. Teacher, who had taken me in, protected me, sheltered me, and raised me, when she had no reason to try for someone like me at all.

She was dead now; that debt was one I would never be able to repay.

I hung my head so that my hair drifted down and hid my expression.

“I… hate people who ask others to play the hero for them.”

“Huh?”

“Kindness isn’t the same as obligation. But if I said, ‘Oh, Veric, you have the greatest survivability of us all, plus you’re the target anyways, so take some responsibility and fix this,’ you seem like the exact type of idiot to get yourself killed trying to do it—”

“Hey!”

“—Even though you’ve already done a good job just surviving somehow.”

Veric fell silent.

“I know I’m a cold person. I can ask for other people’s lives, and I’ll wager my own. If I had to sacrifice something precious to live on, I could do it one hundred out of one hundred times.”

I’d seen it happen enough to become sick of the world, and done it enough to become sick of myself. I’d lost count of the number of nights I held onto my sister’s necklace, wishing that everyone would just go to hell.

“Still. You can’t live on in this world if you keep throwing everything precious away.”

I didn’t have that necklace anymore.

For a while we didn’t say anything, listening to the water flowing by.

Veric let out a small laugh.

“Just now, you sounded a bit like Roxana.”

“How so?”

“She thinks it’s foolish of me to put myself out there as much as I do. And she says stuff like…” Veric cleared her throat and pitched her voice higher, softening it into a passable imitation of Roxana’s innocent lilt. “‘Suffer more, because you are capable of it. Outsiders love to say this kind of thing about our shrine. I don’t understand, though. Should you force yourself to bear more painful things just because you can?’”

“Seems sensible.”

“Roxana always holds thoughts like that in her heart. My teacher is more calculating than most would expect of the Saintess, too. I can’t match up to them in knowledge, interpersonal savviness, or managing political relationships.”

Veric looked away from me. Shadows of flowers danced on the surface, casting alien shapes down the riverbed.

“I think… in many ways, Roxana is more suitable to be the next Saintess than me. Maybe it would be better for everyone if I gave up on the veil. But I’ve made a promise to the Great Dragon, and I want my teacher to be happier, too. So, even though my desires have caused so much trouble for others… I still want to protect what’s most important to me.”

She looked back at me.

“What about you? What are you holding onto?”

I wanted to laugh at her for expecting an honest answer out of me, but I couldn’t find it funny anymore. All I could do was laugh at myself.

In my world, I could have said any number of things, but now that I was in Kosmonymia, without my name, without my face, and without my past, there was only one good answer I could give her.

“My life.”

Without it, I couldn’t do anything.

“But didn’t you just say—”

“What did you think would happen by talking to a liar? Of course you’d only get lies in return.”

Veric heaved a great sigh. “Why do you always make it so difficult to talk to you?”

I raised the corner of my mouth in a humorless smirk. Sorry, Veric, but I didn’t plan to change.

Still.

In light of my dream, I should at least try to make different choices, right?

I braced myself and called out.

“Veric.”

“Yes?”

Go on, Eunseok, I told myself.

You can do it.

Trust her more. Tell her that you’ve gone blind. That you’re weak and afraid. Go against all your instincts and show her your greatest weaknesses, so that one fickle decision of the human heart would be enough to ruin you.

I worked my mouth, but in the end, I couldn’t make myself say it.

“…If something happens, don’t go down to the ocean.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s no place in the Fantasm World safe from danger. Everything was ruined by the visual disaster. You can’t be careless.”

“…Okay. But you’ll be there to warn us, won’t you?”

“You don’t know how things will turn out. That’s why I’m telling you ahead of time.”

Veric laughed nervously. “Come on, Acacius, you don’t need to talk like you’re passing down your last words. If something happens, we’ll just help you again.”

In the vision, they’d said they had my last will. If we had the opportunity, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to leave one.

There were things I had to say if I was going to die.

And besides.

I could be truthful after death in the way I couldn’t be while I was alive.

I offered to keep watch while she rested, but Veric declined, saying that the water rejuvenated her, so she didn’t need it. Personally, I thought she could do with some sleep anyways, but if keeping watch was as meditative as she made it seem, then who was I to question her judgment?

We kept watch a while longer before Luka returned with a bunch of fish skewered on his sword for everyone to eat.

We carried Roxana and Hanan to the surface and found a relatively dry patch of rock to camp on. Luka asked me to help scale and prepare the fish, but since I wouldn’t be able to see what I was doing without someone watching my hands, I declined. Veric handed Jules’ sunglasses to me and went to help him instead.

I didn’t want to start a campfire because I was concerned about smoke and air circulation inside the caves, so once they were done cleaning the fish, I directly used my 6E magic to create a fire. Veric shook Roxana awake and conscripted her to help roast fish fillets.

It turned out that Roxana was quite the sleepyhead, drowsing next to the fire and nearly burning her food. Veric sat next to her so she could keep nudging Roxana awake, but eventually, she gave up and committed to just roasting food for them both. When the fish were done, she brusquely brought them to Roxana’s mouth to eat. Roxana sat there with drooping eyes, docilely opening her mouth and chewing according to Veric’s direction.

It was really hard to make sense of their relationship.

I was a bit worried how I was going to cook while blind, but for whatever reason, Luka kept watching me, so it turned out alright. The fish tasted pretty good. It was just a bit hard to enjoy when I didn’t know what information Luka was reading from those threads in his vision.

“It’s surprising that you’ve acquired a fire affinity,” said Luka.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

“Your strongest affinity before was plant magic. The two don’t usually get along.”

“And what of it?”

Luka considered me.

“I’m curious how much the Duval coming-of-age ceremony can change someone.”

Then he added, “If we both survive this, should we fight?”

I almost spat out my food.

“Hey, this bastard? Are you crazy?”

“It doesn’t have to be to the death.”

“No, why the hell would I agree to that?”

Luka didn’t respond. He just went back to roasting his fish.

Ugh, seriously. How well did Luka know Acacius before, anyways? I guess I should have held my tongue more; my rough and casual speech patterns weren’t in line with Acacius’ character.

Once everyone had eaten their fill, I put out the fire, and we gathered around the unconscious Hanan. Roxana placed her hand on her forehead. A moment later, Hanan opened her eyes.

She sat up with a violent gasp, looking around wildly. Her hand flew to her vest where the book of cards had been. Then, when she saw us, the tension drained from her shoulders, and she relaxed. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Nithemoore students?” she asked in a faint voice.

Luka and Veric exchanged glances. “That’s us,” Veric replied, placing a comforting hand on hers. “Are you alright?”

Hanan wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. She summoned a confident smile and sat up straight. “I am. Were you the ones who rescued me?”

“That’s correct,” said Luka.

“Please accept my heartfelt gratitude. I’m ashamed to have placed this burden on the students I should have been protecting. My name is Hanan, and you are…?”

Veric introduced us briefly. She said, “We found you while looking for Professor Raoul.” On cue, Luka handed her the leather booklet, and she held up Professor Raoul’s card. “What happened?”

Hanan gave the card a regretful look, but she didn’t seem to be inclined to take the booklet back. “I was searching for surviving members of the Broken Kaleidoscope staff when I came across the creator of the paper puppets. I seized that deck from them, but I didn’t manage to escape in time, so I sealed it on my person to prevent its use. How… did you unseal the deck?”

“It’s one of our abilities,” Veric said vaguely. “Do you have a way to unseal Professor Raoul, then?”

Hanan shook her head. “I’m not well-versed in the contract card frame. Is your ability unable to unseal him as well?”

Veric pursed her lips. “Not without potentially killing him as well.”

“I see.” Hanan rubbed her forehead. “Still, there may be another option. One of my colleagues is quite familiar with contract cards, and I believe he may still be alive.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I saw some signs he left behind in the caverns while I was searching. Unfortunately, I didn’t make contact with him before I was captured.”

“Weren’t the Broken Kaleidoscope staff killed in the initial attack?” I said. “Are you sure it’s him and not an impostor? Actually, how did you survive in the first place?”

Hanan smiled wryly. “I believe I was not a priority target because, unlike my colleagues, I am not an apostate of the Scribe. Therefore, I lack the means to create an exit to the Fantasm World on my own. However, my coworker is a bit of an eccentric who is prone to wandering off on his own, so it’s not impossible that he avoided the initial wave of attacks. And if it’s an impostor…”

She was silent, then she sighed.

“Either way, I would like information on this deck. I believe that this is a worthwhile avenue of investigation and will take action accordingly.”

Veric nodded. “What do you think, Acacius?”

If I hadn’t had that vision, what decision would I have made?

My fingers felt cold.

“Can you tell us about your coworker?”

“Certainly. His name is Ozias Reuter, and he specializes in communication technology. In the past, he studied contract cards to observe how their contract information is processed and transferred across space and time. He’s… a bit strange, but his knowledge is unmatched.”

That was the man who had picked me up when I first entered the Fantasm World.

The back of my neck prickled.

“How were you knocked unconscious? We need to be on guard against such a method as well.”

“Ah. This has to do with the nature of the Kaleidoscope.”

Perhaps unconsciously, Hanan’s eyes brightened, and she straightened her back. She began gesticulating with her hands as she spoke.

“It’s a pity that our guided tour was interrupted, so let me rectify some of the knowledge gap now. Besides their light crystal technology, this world is most famous for its Kaleidoscope system of power. This system consists of the Five Eyes: Providence, Misfortune, Clairvoyance, Causality, and finally, the Eye of the Kaleidoscope.

“The power of the Eyes is proportional to the strength of the user’s soul, so if two users come into conflict with each other, the one with the stronger soul has the advantage. Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘the eyes are the window to the soul’? It is especially true here. Using the lenses of this world will offer you some protection from another’s gaze. In fact, it is considered quite impolite to look at someone with your bare eyes.”

“So, did the enemy use the power of the Kaleidoscope against you?”

“…Yes. I’m ashamed to say it, but my soul came unmoored.”

I’d been able to break the gaze of the Eyes that had moved against me. But would betting on that lead to my death?

We’d already learned how to open an exit from Nastaran; it might not be necessary to take a risk to unseal Professor Raoul.

“Last question,” I said, turning to face my temporary allies. “Do any of you remember if Professor Raoul is an apostate of any kind?”

Veric’s eyes flickered.

“He’s an apostate of the Scribe.”

Fuck me. Of course he was.

I couldn’t think of a way for anyone to survive once the visual disaster hit. So if there was even the slightest chance to escape before then…

I ran a hand through my hair, but I already knew what decision I would make.

I laughed dryly.

“Let’s go find Ozias.”

Hanan studied our expressions.

“It may indeed be a dangerous endeavor. As the stewards of this Fantasm World, it is the Broken Kaleidoscope’s responsibility to address the situation, not yours. It may not be in your interests to accompany me.”

Bold words for someone who supposedly got captured on their own, though it did make me feel a bit better about Hanan’s chances of being a traitor.

“I’m fine with it,” Luka said.

Veric nodded. “I think we should try to uncover the truth, too.”

“Don’t worry, Miss Hanan,” Roxana said with a gentle smile. “Although it’s been difficult to get this far, we aren’t weak, either. You can trust us to go with you. Besides, aren’t we the ones who helped you this time?”

Hanan slowly nodded.

“Then, I thank you in advance for your trust and your assistance. I will do my best to protect you. Let us seek out Ozias together.”

The back of my neck prickled again.

“Before we go,” Hanan continued, oblivious to my unease, “if there is anything else you would like to ask, do let me know. After all, since we are working towards a common goal, we are allies, and alliances are made with people you can trust. I will be trusting my back to you. Therefore, I hope you will trust me as well.”

I guess that made sense. What was that saying Chen Xiarui loved so much, again? “When in doubt, don’t use; when using, don’t doubt”? Something like that. I don’t know why he said that to me so often.

Anyways, as long as we were helping each other…

“Do you have any extra paper and pen?” I said.

Hanan produced a waterlogged paper pad from her pocket, along with a pen. Anything that had been written in the pad had long since been stained out of legibility. “Will this do?”

“Of course.”

I took the paper pad and ripped some paper out, then passed the pad to the person next to me to be distributed around our group.

“If anyone has a last will to write, let’s do it now.”

Chapter 28 Back to Index